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SPOILER ALERT! Be advised to proceed with caution at your own risk.

5 out of 5 stars.

This movie is very powerful and motivating. It is based on a book called The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. It attacks problems about society covering racism, poverty, character, and much more.

This movie follows a black teenager named Starr Carter. In the beginning, at the age of 9, her and her siblings (who were 10 and 1) are being given “the talk” by their parents. “The talk” is that of being aware of the racism that goes on in the world and how they can overcome it. I found that surprising because I didn’t expect that for such a young child to go through this conversation that they might not fully comprehend. Their father also taught them their bill of rights. This just shows that they are good people striving to make a living, ending up in a bad neighborhood, but it is where they’re from, and they all have the same skin color and are like a family. Even though society portrays them as bad, violent people.

Time skips to Starr being in high school, and the high school in her area doesn’t have the best reputation. The school is poor and doesn’t give the best education. The family decides to go to a different school which has a better environment. It influences Starr, and many people, to be two different people: at home and at school, or in other settings.

At home, she speaks slang without a care in the world, but doing that at school, she would be judged as the odd one out. Just from that fact left alone, it made me feel pity for her that she lives that way with her life. If she isn’t too much or less from being two different people, she is judged and looked as an abnormality. This story has most likely happened multiple times throughout centuries. Seeing her story from her eyes, what she had to go through, changed my perspective on people of color. That is being able to have a better understanding.

In the movie, Starr explains why she has two R’s in her name. It means how she must be two different people at home compared to school. She must learn how to fit in with others, and how she must have a good reputation to stay out of trouble because she is a person of color. Her friends talk slang while she doesn’t. She’s also dating a boy who is white, and people stare, judge, and question her. She states that sometimes she also questions herself why her boyfriend is staying with her. This is a good example of many others that face discrimination because they are different.

Throughout the movie it is shown multiple times how he’s fighting for her, trying to talk to her, make plans with her to hang out, and every time Starr declines making up the reason saying that she is busy/she can’t right now/her parents are busy because her neighborhood is dangerous compared to where he lives. I appreciate that they showed the relationship, them being together and how strong they are together. They are probably going to last forever, he is husband material. I find their relationship very cute and sweet, with lots of effort committed into each other!

But one night when Starr goes to a party, she bumps into her childhood friend Khalil. This is where the story really begins and starts to get twisted. While having fun and having small talk, suddenly gunshots fire and Khalil grabs Starrs hand rushing out of the house quickly and getting into the car driving off. Luckily not getting injured. In the car, they talk for a bit when Khalil brings up an important quote “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody.” This spells out the words: thug life. She questions him and what it means, he explains “meaning what society gives to us when we little comes back to bite them in the ass when we grow up, and we wild out.” this quote foreshadows the story, it’s referenced multiple times from many characters creating the theme, it is symbolic. Besides that, Khalil pulls the car over to make quick small talk trying to have some time to flirt with Starr to kiss her. He succeeds. She kisses back but explains right after they separate looking him in the eye saying that she has a boyfriend. With that Khalil stars the car again driving off but getting approached by a cop, treated with racism, and the cop shoots him for no reason. A once innocent fun night turned into something horrific. I found this moment a huge injustice and dreadful.

From that moment it reveals the real story. People found that what happened with Khalil was extreme racism. The police officer that shot Khalil was a white man. He was not accused of murder but was sent home and not imprisoned. In the timeline, many innocent black people were abused of their rights, the justice they deserve. It was then that many were starting to fight for their rights, start a movement, a march. It ended up going to court and it became well-known in the area. This showcases the reality of racism in the real world, like the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Implementing this into the movie is a good idea, as it could inspire others to participate or even start a movement.

At the movement, Starr is given the opportunity to speak up. Though afraid at first, she changes as a character learning to speak up for herself. It changed her life a lot, especially because she saw her best friend who she’s known since childhood, die right in front of her, making her the only witness of his death. She was afraid at first to speak up for herself, but after seeing more and more people march and fight for black people and how they are treated with racism. Starr realizes and decides that it is the right thing to do, admit to people that she was the witness, putting her name out there and fighting for justice. I found Starrs development really touching throughout it all, the way it especially affects her relationships with people and how it ended with a result of impacting her life forever losing her best friend. Not being able to speak up when at a younger age, witnessing the death of her other best friend she’s come a long way since then. I found it cool because if something like that happened to other people they wouldn’t really change, or nothing would happen at all because they’re afraid of what’s ahead of them, what will happen to their future, and the fact that Starr did should give other people hope/courage too!

I found it truly amazing how all these events were shown throughout the whole movie. Representing real-life topics, showing how people would react, how people feel, what is right, the justice people deserve, and there is so much to say about this movie that cannot be expressed in words. Go out to watch it for yourself to truly understand and experience what the movie is truly talking about.

Anyway, the movie ends off with the quote which was brought up from the beginning. When Starr was faced in trouble with her brother Seven trying to get to safety, at feeling safe at least through a horrible night of being assaulted for fighting for justice. King purposely set a fire at where they were at which is inside the store. The whole family finds out, gets together, when all together at last, King and the dad get into a fight about to whip out guns the youngest Sekani. Quickly grabs the gun secretly from his dads back and points it at King who was about to pull his gun out at his father. “T H U G L I F E this is it. The Hate U Give Little Infants F’s Everybody. Look at Sekani. He’s the little infant. The result of hate. And he’s about to fuck everybody. It’s not the hate you give. It’s the hate we give. But we can break the cycle.” jumping in front of Sekani to stop him, facing the cop Starr says, “How many of us have to die before y’all get it?” “No more.” representing that she’s trying to put an end to violence, a stop to the injustice black people receive. Not just from white cops but from everyone. I found the ending very intense, touching, speaking the whole theme. I absolutely agree with it. All the negativity around us especially effects the young ones even though they don’t truly understand. In a way they do! Which is so touching. Also, how hate spreads around everywhere. You can’t just put the blame on one person it’s as well as us who add on to that hate, but it only takes one person to end it all. Which is truly a great theme. I love the message it gives out. Violence is never the answer.